About us

We are Britain’s national equality regulator and a United Nations accredited ‘A status’ national human rights institution.

We uphold people’s rights without fear or favour. We use the full force of our legal powers to defend people from unfair or unequal treatment and to challenge breaches of the law. We advise on developing laws and provide guidance, training and support to enable compliance.

We bring people together to create change. We work with employers, governments and a wide range of organisations, to promote understanding of equality and human rights and we support them to make improvements in practice.

Overview of the role and responsibilities

Reporting to the Senior Principal – ICT Transformation and performing a key leadership role in the ICT Team, the Principal: Lead Infrastructure Engineer will lead the design and implementation of our technology strategy, by championing ICT change and digital transformation as we increase our utilisation and reliance on cloud platforms and services. This is an exciting, yet rewarding, role directly responsible for delivering technology change which will enable our people to have access to the right digital tools in a modern hybrid working setting.

This role is an opportunity to lead our ongoing technology transformation in Microsoft 365 and Azure cloud technology platforms for a high profile UK regulator. You will use your breadth skills and experience of managing and supporting Microsoft desktop & server, IP networking and Azure cloud services to provide effective technical leadership, working as part of a friendly, enthusiastic and technically focussed team. You will possess a broad and deep technical knowledge across our service portfolio, including Microsoft-centric technologies (cloud and premises), endpoint management, cyber and information security to deliver real change as we move away from legacy premises-based virtual infrastructure (VMWare) and traditional LAN\WAN services to modern platforms which support our hybrid workforce

You will:

• Implement ongoing technology change and transformation, initially focussing on our move to Microsoft 365 and Teams, through the application of good people and leadership skills and a broad and deep knowledge and experience of applicable IT technologies.

• Act in the capacity of technical design authority for the EHRC, working closely with business partners, peers and key internal stakeholders across the business as well as our strategic IT service providers and external partners to deliver robust changes on time and to cost and quality standards.

• Be an advocate for change and working with all internal groups to ensure they are able to realise the benefits from new services and finding creating solutions to business problems where possible.

• Play a key role in incident management and problem resolution, tackling complex issues and seeking out opportunities to proactively improve the service we offer and to get best value for money from our online platforms and entitlements.

• Work closely with our strategic IT partners and suppliers who deliver organisational-wide projects costing over £250K, ensuring that suppliers meet their performance and service level obligations.

Team Responsibilities

The ICT team is part of the People and Infrastructure Directorate which includes our Facilities & Estates and HR functions.  We are the team responsible for providing and keeping secure the technology services used by our c250 strong workforce across four primary locations.

The Principal – Lead Infrastructure Engineer reports to the Senior Principal – ICT Transformation and will have two direct reports who are responsible for the day-to-day running of the IT infrastructure and our ICT Service Desk function.

You will deputise for the Senior Principal – ICT Transformation, manage your own direct reports, coach, and mentor others, and where required, use your experience and knowledge to provide technical support to ICT service requests, incidents and problems.

The key responsibilities for this team include:

• Providing a high standard of technical and customer-facing support to our user base, including Commissioners and external stakeholders

• Maintaining a highly available, resilient and secure infrastructure across premises and cloud environments

• Leading the development and delivery of IT strategy, ensuring that our services are aligned to corporate strategy

• Being forward thinking and innovating, seeking opportunities to improve the services we provide and to support and enable staff to get the best out of our technology and investments

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Knowledge, Skills and Experience required include:

Essential

• Experience of administering a broad range of features in Microsoft 365 ranging from information security and compliance to service management, including messaging, Teams & SharePoint, endpoints management and Azure infrastructure services.

• Knowledge of managing and maintaining Microsoft technologies including Microsoft 365 services, Windows Server, Active Directory, Exchange Server and SQL databases services

• Demonstrable experience of leading the design, implementation and ongoing management of a broad range of cloud and premises services, including IaaS and SaaS, preferably across the Microsoft portfolio.

• Knowledge and experience of managing and maintaining IP networks and able to define highly available, resilient, scalable and secure end to end architecture and solutions.

• Proven analytical and problem solving skills, with the ability to research and evaluate issues and make sound recommendations for improvements.

• Experience of working with key suppliers and stakeholders and holding them to account for their deliverables, and owning performance issues through to resolution.

Benefits

In addition to a competitive salary, we offer a range of benefits including flexible working patterns, 30 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays (full time FTE), access to the Civil Service Pension Scheme and partnership pension schemes, and enhanced parental leave benefits. More information can be found in the candidate pack.

How to apply

If this sounds like the role for you, please review the attached Candidate Pack for more information and submit your application today!

If you have any questions, please contact Lee Blinkhorn: Head of IT Transformation Lee.Blinkhorn@equalityhumanrights.com 0161 829 8100

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an accredited Disability Confident Leader and operates a Guaranteed Interview Scheme (GIS) for candidates with a disability.

Should you wish to apply under our Guaranteed Interview Scheme or request a reasonable adjustment, please indicate this in your application.  

If you require an alternative accessible version of the application form or wish to discuss your application or reasonable adjustment  – please contact us by email at recruitment@equalityhumanrights.com or by telephone on 0161 829 8100.

Diversity in our workforce

At the Commission, we are proud of our respectful workplace that values the contribution of all our staff, whatever their background.  We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment. Our recruitment decisions are based on fair, open competition, with appointment on merit. We welcome applications from everyone to ensure we achieve a balanced representation in our workforce in all grades.